In other words

To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining, in the days of our children, the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed. ~Theodore Roosevelt

Stop snowing, already

Wednesday, 6:59 pm

By Kate

Feb

02

2011

You know you live in New England when....

Well, as Cyn pointed out in her last post...this is New England and it is supposed to snow. But not this much. I know we have had harsh winters in the past, but I don’t remember so many roofs collapsing in such rapid succession. And I don’t recall having to shovel every couple of days. This is way past tiresome.

As of yesterday morning, I had a little over two feet of snow standing in my yard. As of last night, I had 3+ feet of snow standing in my yard and my picket fences were totally buried. Last night I shoveled a foot of snow out of my driveway and walkways and off my deck. It was light fluffy snow, so not backbreaking work. As of this evening, I have over four feet of snow standing in my yard. My driveway is not shoveled out because there is absolutely no place left for me to shovel it. I seriously don’t know what I am going to do. The mountains of snow on either side of my driveway are so high that I can’t throw the snow over the top of them anymore. Not when the snow is as heavy as it is today. Those mountains of snow are over 10 feet tall and I’m half that height. And I have two and a half feet of snow (thanks in part to the city snow plow driver) to dig out of my driveway. There’s no place for it to go. I am not kidding nor exaggerating in the slightest.

There is more snow forecast for Saturday and again next Tuesday. This constant parade of nor’easters marching up the coast has got to stop.

Tap, tap...

Saturday, 10:22 pm

By Kate

Aug

29

2009

I probably should poke my head in here and let you know that I am, indeed, still breathing. And probably will get back to blogging a bit more often and regularly in the very near future.

Summer is over. The lad left for school yesterday and, as usual, he left a gaping hole in my poor heart. I mean, by now we know this is as inevitable as the sun rising and setting. We had such a terrific summer. I suppose it is normal to not want the wonderful to end. Ah well. I miss him and the house feels terribly empty tonight (or as empty as it can feel with a cat and a dog racing around the place chasing wildlife....we’ll get to that story in a minute). Nevertheless, it is always a delight to see how excited he is to return to friends and the independence.

We certainly did give my checking account a workout the last couple of weeks. He’s sharing an apartment with three other guys this year, so needed housekeeping stuff. And cookware. And cooking utensils. He’s cooking for himself this year rather than relying on a campus meal plan. And that includes budgeting money for groceries and managing his finances for the semester. We wonder how much he will enjoy cooking by the end of the semester. We’ll see how the money management goes, too. I wouldn’t be too surprised if there are a couple of care packages filled with Ramen Noodles for those special occasions when the sink is piled high with dirty dishes, the term paper is due in the morning, and there’s not even enough time left to sleep, let alone cook. Possibly for those other rare occasions when the grocery money doesn’t quite stretch to include the...um...groceries.

So, about that wildlife the dog and cat are chasing around the house....

Last night Abbie (the cat) came up from the basement with her first catch of the season. I did not realize what was going on until she started mrrrowing as if she had a mouth full of marbles. I made the mistake of asking, “Abbie, what in the world do you have in your mouth?” She dropped a mouse on the floor and told me. Naturally, the mouse did not stick around for Abbie to have a second chance.

Sooo… now I have an itty bitty mouse zipping around my living room. Abbie has been a dismal failure at catching it today. Mackenzie is not much better, though she’s tremendously excited about this little creature that moves so quickly. If someone doesn’t catch it tonight, I suppose I will have to put a trap under the sofa. I really do wish Abbie would catch the darned thing. She is, at least, making progress. It wasn’t all that long ago that she was still afraid of mice.

I guess it is the season for mice to move inside. I expect this will be just the first of several hapless mousies. The days have already grown noticeably shorter and cooler. Autumn is in the air.

I have a feeling this intends to be a stormy autumn. We’ve already had the remnants of two hurricanes within a week, the most recent (Danny) departing here only a couple of hours ago. Probably just getting warmed up for the nor’easters. This is going to be the year for them. One after the other. I can just tell.

Over the last week, the lad and I stacked a couple of cords of wood. I’m now ready for the heating season. And the snow and the cold and more snow. This year I got my tarps over the woodpiles before weather happened. My wood is still thoroughly dry even though we’ve been practically drowned in this storm. Dry wood makes Kate a happy girl. What would make Kate an even happier girl, however, would be a lovely warm autumn lasting though Thanksgiving, an extended January thaw, and an early April spring. Is that REALLY too much to ask? I don’t think so.

How to build an ark

Thursday, 11:58 pm

By Kate

Jul

02

2009

The Boston Globe has a sense of humor!

We’re in the worst recession of most people’s lifetime, and in the midst of the worst stretch of summer weather that anyone can remember. Have things reached biblical proportions? Maybe not, but just in case, we thought it might help to provide instructions on how to build an ark.

Positively depressing

Monday, 9:33 pm

By Kate

Jun

29

2009

Here’s our weather forecast for the next week. It’s pretty much like last week and the week before and the week before that. Except, maybe, a bit warmer. If it says 50% chance of rain, we get our full 50%. And when it’s not raining, it’s still cloudy or we’re socked in with fog. We are growing moldy. And depressed. I will never get any painting done this summer if this doesn’t stop. I mean it. Everything is perpetually wet. And the humidity never drops below 90%. It is the worst weather since...maybe last summer. Lord, what a wretched climate.

TONIGHT
CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND DRIZZLE. SHOWERS MAY
BE HEAVY AT TIMES THIS EVENING. AREAS OF FOG. LOWS IN THE UPPER
50S. LIGHT AND VARIABLE WINDS. CHANCE OF RAIN 50 PERCENT.

TUESDAY
MOSTLY CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
HIGHS IN THE LOWER TO MID 70S. EAST WINDS AROUND 10 MPH. CHANCE OF
RAIN 50 PERCENT.

TUESDAY NIGHT
MOSTLY CLOUDY. A CHANCE OF RAIN AND DRIZZLE IN THE
EVENING
THEN RAIN AND DRIZZLE LIKELY AFTER MIDNIGHT. PATCHY FOG.
LOWS IN THE UPPER 50S. EAST WINDS AROUND 10 MPH IN THE
EVENING
BECOMING LIGHT AND VARIABLE. CHANCE OF RAIN 70 PERCENT.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT
RAIN AND DRIZZLE LIKELY IN THE EVENING
THEN A
CHANCE OF RAIN AND DRIZZLE AFTER MIDNIGHT. PATCHY FOG. LOWS IN THE
UPPER 50S. EAST WINDS AROUND 10 MPH IN THE EVENING
BECOMING LIGHT
AND VARIABLE. CHANCE OF RAIN 70 PERCENT.

The strangest thing

Saturday, 9:18 pm

By Kate

Apr

11

2009

This afternoon, I noticed my across the street neighbor out doing yard work in the rain. And it struck me as kind of a good idea. I decided to go out, too, with my brand new heavy duty steel rake. I raked and raked and raked...all those dead grass areas in the yard. I roughed up the soil and got it all nice and ready for some grass seed. I was warm enough and it didn’t rain on me too much. In fact, it pretty much stopped raining while I was out there. I should have guessed.

In any case, I got out my big bag of grass seed. It’s the kind of seed that’s incapsulated by fertilizer and some other green gunk that does something useful. I took handsful and broadcast it across the bare spots. I ended up using the entire bag (about 5 pounds) and got what looks like pretty good coverage along both sides of the driveway. I can hope that this time the grass might grow. I can hope really, really hard.

And, of course, a little bit of rain would help a lot, too. Now, I’ve been the one moaning about all the rain in the forecast. And complaining about rainy days, one after the other. Where was I with my grass seed while all that was going on? Huh? I don’t know.

Now that my grass seed is planted, the forecast is barren of rain for the next 10 days. Does it not just figure?

There was the most beautiful red and pink sunset tonight. It was absolutely gorgeous and it said, “ha, ha, ha, ha...sailor’s delight tomorrow, kiddo. You snooze you lose. Shoulda planted that grass seed two weeks ago. That’ll teach you to put things off.”

Nah, the sunset didn’t really speak to me. But if it could have, that’s what it would have said.

April showers

Saturday, 2:26 pm

By Kate

Apr

04

2009

Our April showers apparently intend to move in and stay for a while. It has been drippy and damp for the better part of the week. The next several days’ forecasts have rain as the centerpiece, too. Although we haven’t been threatened with floods (or been flooded) like other parts of the country—yet—I’m sure we feel pretty much the same way about incessant rain. This has been an unusual spring. At least in my yard. Despite all the rain, we have somehow managed to by-pass mud season, which is almost a guaranteed season. So that’s something to be happy about. I don’t know why things aren’t a muddy mess, but they aren’t, and I’ll take it, thank you.

Still, could we save some of the rain for later? We might need it later. It is not necessary to dump it on us all at once. Really, it isn’t.